On May 28th, Luther Burbank High School held a showcase for Fresh Producers. Fresh Producers is an interscholastic program between American Legion High School, Luther Burbank High School, and Hiram Johnson High School, teaching students about urban agriculture, teamwork, and leadership.

Fresh Producers is now providing their services at Luther Burbank High School. They host a farm stand full of fresh fruits and vegetables every Thursday from 3:00 to 6:00 in the school parking lot. In this video, we talk to one of the students who is in the program.

Fresh Producers’ Community Educators is a group of young, health oriented, high school students who advocate their knowledge of staying healthy to the community.

Beginning of the Sacramento School Unified School District’s 2012-2013 school year, Fresh Producers offered their partnered school, Hiram W. Johnson’s Health Medical Services (HMS) pathway students the opportunity of having an internship with their organization.

The Hiram Johnson’s HMS pathway is a Small Learning Community (SLC) focused on health. Students in the HMS pathway gain knowledge of the various careers and opportunity in health, as well as education about health. Generally, students in the HMS’ SLC are passionate about future careers in the healthcare field, making HMS students’ well-suited candidates for the Community Educators position.

“I am passionate about being healthy,” says HMS student, Brenda Martinez. “I applied to become a Community Educator because I want to share what I know about health.”

Fresh Producer’s Community Educators consist of various jobs, for example making a lesson plan that focuses on health and then taking it to local elementary and middle schools. With their knowledge from school and some online research, Community Educators are expected to deliver their lesson plan that focuses on health. Overall, Community Educators are to advocate health to kids.

Community Educators lessons plans are directed in many areas of health from, but not limited to, keeping a good hygiene, the importance of exercising and eating a balance diet.

“I will teach hygiene,” says one of the Community Educators, Fey Saechao. “My partner Brenda and I have been working hard on creating a lesson plan for second to fourth graders. I know these students are young, so we’re making the lessons down to the point, and understandable for them.”

After months of preparation, Community Educators are expected in the spring of 2013 to teach at nearby schools.

“It’s set that we will teach at schools in spring,” says community educator, Felicia Vasquez. “We’d planned for so long because we don’t want to give false information, and especially to those young kids in elementary. Also, we have to run our lesson plans so we know what we can improve on. Simply, we take long because we want our lesson plans to be perfect.”

Fresh Producers Community Educators are promoting a healthier life starting at its roots, childhood, educating kids on how to prevent preventable-health problems.

This video is an interview with Rabbi David Wechsler-Azen , Founder of Fresh Producers. In the video, Rabbi David speaks about what Fresh Producers did in 2012 and what is to come in 2013.

Fresh Producers (FP), a California tax-exempt non-profit, harnesses the entrepreneurial drive of youth to inspire choices that improve health, wealth and skills for life. Through the creation and management of distribution outlets for fresh food, linked in a youth social marketing network for other healthful goods and services, young people gain professional experience, income opportunities and educational savings, while fostering multiple positive impacts for their families and neighborhoods.

Are you a young person in Sacramento who is interested in a healthy fundraising alternative for your school, congregation, club, or other organization? If so, contact Fresh Producers, a California tax-exempt non-profit and BHC grantee to learn how to get started raising money in a healthy way!

Future Fresh Producers can gain a professional experience, opportunities to earn income, and financial literacy. Fresh Producers can also earn up to $4.00 for themselves by selling bags filled with an assortment of fruits and vegetables that are locally grown. With every transaction, Fresh Producers deposit a percentage of their sales into a scholarship fund for all youth participants.

This organization’s mission is to help young people in the Sacramento area learn about healthy diets while providing them with an early start on saving from college expenses by providing an easy fundraiser. Fresh Producers have already partnered up with Hiram Johnson High School in the Sacramento City Unified School District. Simply put, it’s all about youth producing wealth from health.

Students at Hiram Johnson have been keeping busy working with Fresh Producers on and off campus. As of October 2012, they have been actively selling their produce parcels to SCUSD staff, as well as to their teachers and families.

“In the beginning of my internship, I wasn’t confident in my abilities to reach out to others,” says Nhia Lor, an intern with Fresh Producers. “However, as time progressed, my internship at Fresh Producers has encouraged me to expand my comfort zone and improve my social skills by requiring me reach out to the public. I have to walk up to complete strangers and initiate a conversation in hope of a sale, no longer fearing rejection or disappointment.”

Other Hiram Johnson Fresh Producers interns have similar comments about the benefits of this program.

On Wednesday June 6th, Fresh Producers, a Sacramento-based non-profit, hosted their end of the year celebration at Will C. Wood Middle School. The student-driven event showcased work from after school programs at Father Keith B. Kenny Elementary, Oak Ridge Elementary, Will C. Wood Middle School and Hiram Johnson High School. Youth and staff from each site presented videos, pictures, and projects, while sharing their favorite memories with attendees. Students highlighted how Fresh Producers had improved their eating habits, taught them how to read food labels, introduced them to new fruits and vegetables, and prepared them for college and future employment.

Student chefs in the Fresh Producers program at Will C. Wood prepared a healthy spread of spinach smoothies, assorted dips, and a stunning salad bar. Recipes highlighted seasonal and local ingredients, including fava beans and herbs grown by the students. Fresh Producers thanks all of the attendees for supporting our work in the community and looks forward to running health and entrepreneurship education this summer and fall.

Fresh Producers is a 501(c)3 non-profit with the mission to harness the entrepreneurial drive of youth to inspire choices that improve health, wealth and skills for life. For more information visit http://freshproducers.org/

Fresh Producers, a California non-profit, has partnered with the Reebok Foundation to give students at Peter Burnett Elementary School a healthy start to their day. The program includes a morning workout called BOKS (Build Our Kids’ Success) and a healthy breakfast bar loaded with fresh fruits, yogurt, and granola. To kick-off the program, Isaiah Thomas of the Sacramento Kings joined students and staff in games and exercises, and he even sat down to a breakfast of watermelon, strawberries, and yogurt with the kids. Thomas shared how exercise has helped him achieve his goals in life, and how physical health helps you do better in school and in life.

The Fresh Producers Club at Hiram Johnson High School sponsored a booth at the February 29th Kings Family Fun Night. The students that participate in the Fresh Producers Club purchased organic walnuts, almonds and raisins from the Capay Valley Farm Shop which they then assembled into a home-made trail mix. They also distributed Cuties tangerines which they obtained from General Produce.

Every person who did ten jumping jacks received a bag of trail mix and one Cutie for their effort. Fresh Producers also distributed nutritional information and encouraged other Hiram Johnson students to get involved with with the group. The event was very well attended with students, their families, teachers and staff all making the rounds of various booths, learning about health and nutrition, physical activity and shooting basketball.

Fresh Producers had one of the most popular booths of the entire event, distributing nearly 75 pounds of trail mix and another 40 pounds of Cutie tangerines.

Fresh Producers Club members from Hiram Johnson High School attended the BHC Youth Development Hub meeting on February 9, 2012, held at Panaceas’ office at the Serna Center. Adrian, Sally and Yee along with youth from other schools in the BHC community met with Youth Development HUB adults to help us understand how they see their world, and how we can work with them to make it better.

It didn’t take much coaching on the part of Dylan Fisher, a Teen Director from the local Boys & Girls Club, to encourage the students to answer questions, guide the discussion and inform future work of the BHC Youth Development HUB. Thanks to all of you for a great job!

Produce Packing Day at Women’s Empowerment

Fresh Producers contracts with Women’s Empowerment (http://www.womens-empowerment.org/) to help us with packing the produce that our students sell to their families, teachers and local businesses. This week of February saw Ann, Heather and Brenda from Women’s Empowerment, working with Joe who lives in South Sacramento and who delivers for Fresh Produce, assembling many delicious fruits and vegetables for our students. We are impressed by their understanding of food safety and handling, their dedication to this time consuming task and their willingness to work with us to make the students’ lives better.

Four Sacramento City Unified School District campuses, Oak Ridge and Father Keith B. Kenny Elementary, Will C. Wood Middle School, and Hiram Johnson High School, have teamed with the organization Fresh Producers in order to help provide delicious, healthy fruits and vegetables with the people who want them, while at the same time teaching various professional skills and raising money for future activities.

At Hiram Johnson High School and at Will C. Wood Middle School, Fresh Producers student club members have been ramping up sales, selling “Buyers’ Club” memberships to teachers, parents, staff and neighbors. Each Buyers’ Club member recieves a huge bag twice a month full of nutritious, healthy fruit and vegetables, and the students then add 20% of the sales value into an account to spend on future field trips and other activities. For example the students at Will C. Wood plan to spend their earnings by attending a science camp in June, and Hiram Johnson students are putting together an exciting trip to a college campus and an organic farm.

Students in all four schools learn about food production, local and industrial agriculture, why it’s important to be active and to eat good food. They get to prepare and eat food that comes from the local farmers’ market, and at 2 of the schools, they are planting a school garden.

Just this month, Fresh Producers’ Managing Director, Claudia Reid, participated in the Eco-Farm Conference, where she participated in panel discussions about food hubs, discussions about farmers selling healthy food directly to schools, and talks about food access, hunger, and food justice. Many of the other attendees Reid met at the conference are also excited about what Fresh Producers does in Sacramento, and want to work directly with us to provide good food to our schools.